The World and National Councils of Churches

Article ID: DN030 | By: CRI Statement

According to the constitution of the World council of Churches (WCC), their first function is “to call the churches to the goal of visible unity in one faith and in one eucharistic fellowship…” The National Council of Churches (NCC) has a similar goal. Both are ecumenical Christian bodies embracing a large number of denominations.

Although the WCC maintains in its doctrinal statement that member churches must “confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior according to the Scriptures,” there seems to be such doctrinal leniency that people who disavow the deity of Christ can still be members. This is also true of the NCC which, for example, has as a member church The Church of the New Jerusalem (Swedenborgianism), a body which has been historically regarded as a non-Christian cult.

This is not to say that there are not Christians in the WCC and the NCC; in fact, over the years we have had opportunities to work with some of those involved in the Councils when our goals have overlapped. However, the official position of the Christian Research Institute is that these ecumenical councils are theologically, socially, and politically dominated by liberal theologians — who have also been historically leftist in their political dealings.

One of the constitutional functions of the WCC is to promote “one human family in justice and peace” and, at times, this goal is approached with a political leaning and theological perspective we cannot fully endorse, particularly when it involves the funding of armed violence.

A final note: both the WCC and the NCC, however, deny membership to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Mormons, the mind science cults, and other groups which have historically refused to affirm biblical Christianity and the creeds of Christendom.

Christian Research Institute

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